We've gotten a few reports in recent days that Motorola's latest budget phone is hungry. Hungry for what, you may ask? SIM cards. Several reviews on Amazon allege the G5 Plus SIM card tray is defective and causes SIM cards to become lodged in the phone. Having a Moto G5 Plus at the ready, I'm struggling to figure out how anyone can get this wrong.

The Moto G5 Plus is the first G-series phone to have a pop-out SIM card slot like the more expensive Motorola phones. This is necessary because the back panel is no longer removable. I've always liked Motorola's SIM/SD slots because the cards clip in firmly for easy loading. Honestly, I've never had to look at the directions to use them. However, Motorola made the mistake of including the diagram for the international dual-SIM variant in the manual. That's a problem, and it should be fixed. At the same time, it should be obvious how the slot works by looking at it.

As you can see above, the US market has a single SIM version of the phone. The SIM holder is keyed so the card only fits in one way. There's also a diagram on the SIM holder itself that shows you how to insert the card. On the back of the holder is where the microSD card lives. I can only assume people are trying to put a second SIM in this area (forcing it, really), and it's getting stuck in the phone. No surprise there. Again, there's an SD card diagram etched in, and the space is keyed to only hold the microSD card.

Moto owns some of the blame for using the wrong diagram in the manual, but people need to take a step back and think about what they're doing. Does it seem like you're breaking stuff? Okay, don't do that.

I'm surprised some people are able to involuntarily breathe throughout the day.

Cole

I guess they're too dumb or stupid to shower before leaving.

T4rd

The amount of stupid people out there and the things they do never cease to amaze me.

David

I hear you. Unfortunately, it seems like, these days, everything must be engineered so it will fit in one way and not fit or go in any other way imaginable. These are the people that would use a portable CD player and complain no music came out when they put a CD upside down.

Brian Menius

What's a CD player?

Rob

I think he means that cup-holder that comes out of the computer. Duh.

Serge Cebrian

my computer doesnt have a cup holder- drive what are you talking about ? (i was too cheap to include one aparently . just kidding my cup holder is external and usb powered .. i can only asume is to keep the cup of coffee warm)

Nicholas C

On the count of three lets all say Nintendo Switch!
1...2...3!
NINTENDO SWITCH!!!!

Lord Argyris

Never underestimate the powerful stupidity sufficiently motivated humans are capable of achieving.

That said, this SIM card thing is illustrative of some peoples' mindset. Whenever I manage to do something powerfully stupid myself, I'll stop, probably facepalm, shake my head and say, "that was really dumb, and if I've messed this up, it's definitely my fault." That thought process is what I don't see in others as often as I'd like these days. There's always somebody else you could blame if you put in the necessary mental contortion, and that seems like the more common trajectory.

Marcelove

The problem is way bigger at USA: people can do the most dumbest things and get away with it thanks to the judicial system... Why do you think that before any video showing anything dangerous there is always an advice to not try at home? Because at court a person can suit the makers of the video and get rich... Even if the video clearly shows something obviously dangerous, a dumb dude replicating it will gain a great sum if there wasn't any warning ( Mythbusters always had the warning, even if they try to, for example, explode a car with a bomb, because if there isn't and someone dies trying to replicate the video, Mythbusters would lost in court).. An obviously unreal thing too can award a person easy money (like a man that won against Redbull because he didn't get wings after consuming lots of cans of the beverage )... So the problem really isn't the dumb and idiots, but actually the judges that allow those people not take responsibility for their own acts... If the legal system treated them as idiots , people in a hurry would stop complaint about retarded things...

T4rd

The Redbull story is actually not true if you look it up.

But yes, in general this country (the US) is the most litigious country in the world and it's scary to see/think what morons have been awarded for doing obviously stupid things. Something needs to happen to stop enabling these morons and also to allow natural selection to take back over and restore order to our species, hah.

Serge Cebrian

i heard the settlement was to give the man autentic chicken wings attached via surgery on the mans back

Marius Maries

I got a $10 check from red bull as part of a class action lawsuit. I don't know who started it and what it was for; I definitely cashed the check. Why not?

Max Johnson

No one mentioned that cool keyboard in the background.

imonandroid

For real! What keyboard are you using?

Lord Argyris

I saw that in a previous article. I can't remember if I commented or not, but it would have been something to the effect that I can't decide whether that keyboard is hideous or glorious. I still can't decide...

Mike Jano

I have the phone and it's easy and strait forward. These people saying this are non tech savvy people who probably can t pop popcorn without the button on the microwave.

To be honest, I found the SIM tray extremely confusing at first. I pulled it out and was shocked just how long it was... Also, what's that weird little lever thing that swivels? I figured this must be a dual-sim tray that's simply had one of the SIM slots blocked. I also forgot this phone had MicroSD support, so I did not realize the tray does double-duty holding the SD.

I had trouble seeing the SIM card graphic on the tray because my lights were low. However, to your point, I exercised caution and basic judgment until I figured out exactly where the SIM went. The put a notch on SIM cards for a reason. It felt weird, like attaching the SIM to the back of the tray, but I got it right.

kabloink

I don't blame the users. When one is in doubt how to do things, people will look at the manual. It's the manufacturers fault for not including the correct information in it's manual.

Luca

There is a diagram on the SIM holder, it's not that difficult to figure it out.

Rob

Yes, but then there's also a + and - for batteries and people still can't figure out how to put those in.

Adam Margeson

We should let those people swallow a small chunk of active nuclear material the blue pill and die escape the Matrix.

Let's make a phone for stupid people, one with a Mini SIM slot on the back.

Syukri Lajin

Motorola did a great job with the sim slot. Must be the same idiot that got their S-Pen stuck. Lol. Anyway, i love moto's slot design. There's a special place in hell for the person that designed thr original hybrid slot. Who the heck thought it was a good idea to have a slot that can only accept one(or two out of 3) option at a time? When they still have to spend money making the pins available to support both of it? Why can't the design be like the g5 plus so that we can use all the function at the same time?

ericshmerick

I have this phone and can attest the SIM tray is confusing af.

M3D1T8R

Lenovo, like most of the rest of us, must have not realized that there was still a manual included with the phone.

I haven't looked at a phone's "manual" in ten years.

Eric Westrope

No problems here with my Moto G5 Plus! I ejected the Sim/SD card tray, inserted the cards according to the instructions, reinserted the tray. Everything worked smoothly.

JC

Coming from someone that has executed A LOT of formal Usability testing sessions on mobile and web applications; no matter how hard you try, people will ALWAYS find something to break.

Adam Margeson

"Invent a foolproof product and the universe will invent a better fool."

JC

Bingo

Carson

Does anyone else enjoy that in the lead picture he's got the sim tray hanging out of the phone upside down?

I got one of these phones, but my problem is it will not sync and restore apps from my Google account. Anyone else know how to fix this?

Rupesh Chikop

For the first time in my life I found comments more interesting than news.😁

Amit Chandra

Same erroneous diagram has been put with the Moto Z play too. Thank Lord that I didn't follow the diagram but the shape that was sculpted.

mcat

External SIM card trays are a new thing for most people and the first time you open and look at one with a card already in it can be a little confusing and one without a card even moreso. Maybe they need to include a separate sheet with a large diagram and instructions for how to install the card. And hopefully trays will have a notch or something that keeps people from inserting them upside down so they can't screw that up and damage the tray or phone.

More importantly, why sell the US short with 1 SIM card slot in a phone unlocked for all 4 carriers, especially when the same phone has 2 slots overseas??? It's also missing NFC, AC, and a notification light. Get it right!

Washington Irving

the problem is it is not clear that it fits when the sim card is in.

Becks

got such a good laugh out of this as this was one of the first results that came up when googling to figure out how the hell to do it

AbeLinc

Motorola is A LOT to blame, my instructions for my US phone says you need 2 sim cards. NOT TRUE! Just in India. That may be the problema.

I activated one of these yesterday and yes, the manual confused me. But I happened to see the very lightly etched picture of the SD card in the large slot and didn't see one in the front area. Purely by accident did I flip it over to see a lightly etched picture there. I would have never thought that the sim card goes on the bottom if I hadn't mistakenly found it. I was seriously considering how you slip a nano-sim into that front area on the tray.

giovannim

If I manage to get the 2 SIMS tray will the phone work as dual sim, or the US version is different ?

Simon S

This article misses the point: with good instructions 5% of people will do things incorrectly. But with bad instructions, 25% of people are going to do things incorrectly. It's Motorola's fault they included bad instructions and more people are failing, not the general public's.

Michael Kuperstein

So, this just happened to me, and so I know exactly how this happens. And yes, my bad, I wasn't really paying attention to what I was doing. But, still, that's no excuse for Motorola.

tl;dr: I did *not* try to force it into where the SD card goes.

Basically, the provided EU instructions show where you should put "SIM1" and "SIM2". SIM2 points to where the SIM really lives, while SIM1 goes right above it (that is, towards the inside of the phone - the space that looks "kinda" like it may hold a SIM). Now, of course, you can't put it there very securely, because the drawer isn't really built that way, and there's nothing holding it from the "top". But I thought it's just a flimsy drawer.
So, in it goes. But it doesn't go in fully, and when you realize the drawer won't go all the way in and pull it out, the SIM is already wedged in.

To conclude: I'm an idiot, and had I stopped to think for a second, I would have realized I shouldn't be doing this. But this thing is far from idiot-proof: the wrong instructions, combined with the drawer design, make the mistake very tempting to make. I think the only reason this doesn't happen more often, is that people don't bother reading the instructions - if you just look at the drawer, and aren't misled into thinking the phone is dual-SIM, where the SIM goes really is obvious.

Robert O’Connell

why in the world can you no longer open sim tray easily with a paper clip or dull needle? A friggin tool?

Leon

While this may be true for this particular issue, it doesn't the issue of the sim card randomly not being detected if data is turned off, an issue that has persisted through multiple generations of the device and was reported at launch, yet still has not been addressed.